The Trekker Breeze is a GPS devise for the Visually Impaired and Blind. While using the Trekker with Visually Impaired students I found it to be most useful in teaching students to spatially update. Common problems associated with Visually Impaired Students I've encountered are:
- Students have difficulty maintaining orientation after they have crossed the street. For Example: While walking north on Queen St. Susie comes to the intersection or Queen and King St., where she crosses King St. After crossing the intersection, Susie believes she is now on a different street. While using the Trekker Breeze Susie receives auditory input about her current position. Thus when she crossed King St. the Trekker updates and identifies her position as traveling North on Queen St.
- Students I've encountered also have difficulty identifying that there are two sides of the street and that they have the same name. Verbally they can tell you that there are two sides of Queen St. the odd and the even side. However if they cross the street and change their location they will tell you that are on a new street not the opposite side. The Trekker's auditory input also assisted my students in confirming their location when moving to the other side of the street. The Trekker will speak the name of the street as well as the address on the side.
- Students I have worked with have great deal of difficulty with the concept of a residential block. They verbally tell you a block had 4 corners, and 4 sides. The struggle with the concept of the 4 corners are 4 different intersections and the 4 sides are 4 different street names. Google maps has a really nice walk feature with will allow the student to take a visual tour while moving the mouse to walk around the block. The trekker did not appear to enforce that concept for my students.
- The favorite feature of my students is the "where am I" button. At any given time my students would press this button to obtain additional information about where they are. Typically in the beginning they pressed this button every 20 feet. They were able to utilize this feature to confirm their ideas about their current location.
- Lastly the number one purpose for this devise was it built confidence in my students. My students felt more secure in their environment using the Trekker. It provided a safety net and allowed them the freedom to explore without the consequences of feeling lost. It gave information about the shape of and intersection, traffic control, direction in which traffic would travel.
- Students have difficulty maintaining orientation after they have crossed the street. For Example: While walking north on Queen St. Susie comes to the intersection or Queen and King St., where she crosses King St. After crossing the intersection, Susie believes she is now on a different street. While using the Trekker Breeze Susie receives auditory input about her current position. Thus when she crossed King St. the Trekker updates and identifies her position as traveling North on Queen St.
- Students I've encountered also have difficulty identifying that there are two sides of the street and that they have the same name. Verbally they can tell you that there are two sides of Queen St. the odd and the even side. However if they cross the street and change their location they will tell you that are on a new street not the opposite side. The Trekker's auditory input also assisted my students in confirming their location when moving to the other side of the street. The Trekker will speak the name of the street as well as the address on the side.
- Students I have worked with have great deal of difficulty with the concept of a residential block. They verbally tell you a block had 4 corners, and 4 sides. The struggle with the concept of the 4 corners are 4 different intersections and the 4 sides are 4 different street names. Google maps has a really nice walk feature with will allow the student to take a visual tour while moving the mouse to walk around the block. The trekker did not appear to enforce that concept for my students.
- The favorite feature of my students is the "where am I" button. At any given time my students would press this button to obtain additional information about where they are. Typically in the beginning they pressed this button every 20 feet. They were able to utilize this feature to confirm their ideas about their current location.
- Lastly the number one purpose for this devise was it built confidence in my students. My students felt more secure in their environment using the Trekker. It provided a safety net and allowed them the freedom to explore without the consequences of feeling lost. It gave information about the shape of and intersection, traffic control, direction in which traffic would travel.